Daily Notes: A Brief Review of Brandon Beachy’s Season Debut
Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of the Daily Notes.
1. A Brief Review of Brandon Beachy’s Season Debut
2. Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
3. Today’s Complete Schedule
A Brief Review of Brandon Beachy’s Season Debut
Introduction
Undrafted out of Indiana Wesleyan University in 2008 following his junior year there, but subsequently signed that summer by Atlanta for $20 thousand out of a collegeiate wood-bat league in Virginia, right-hander Brandon Beachy proceeded to move rapidly through the Braves system. After recording strikeout and walk rates of 26.5% and 5.7%, respectively, in 208.0 innings in the minors, Beachy made his major-league debut in 2010. The following season, he was excellent, posting an 82 xFIP- and 2.8 WAR in 141.2 innings. After 13 starts in 2012, he was forced to undergo Tommy John surgery. His start last (Monday) night against Colorado at home was his first in the majors since June of last year.
What follows is a brief review of same.
Beachy’s Results
Beachy’s defense-independent performance on Monday varied considerably from his actual, real-live one. The 26-year-old recorded a 5:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio against 20 batters over 3.2 innings, producing an entirely reasonable 3.41 xFIP. Simultaneous to that, however, Beachy allowed two home runs and conceded hits on half the balls in play against him, ultimately making him responsible for eight runs (box).
Beachy’s Repertoire
As the PITCHf/x chart below (featuring speed and horizontal movement) reveals, Beachy threw four or five different pitches on Monday — a fastball at about 89-93 mph; a changeup at 81-84 mph; a slider at 80-84 mph; and a slow curve, at 70-74 mph. He also appears maybe to have thrown a lone two-seamer (see below).
Beachy’s Repertoire, Relative to 2011
As the following comparative charts suggest, Beachy exhibited more or less the same collection of pitches on Monday as he did during his very successful 2011 season — with the difference being possibly that his fastball was a little slower on Monday and his changeup faster but with less arm-side movement.
Action Footage: Beachy’s Fastball
Here’s footage from Monday — with Jorge de la Rosa batting — of Beachy’s fastball, which pitch has historically produced a higher swinging-strike rate than other pitchers’ fastballs:
Action Footage: Beachy’s Two-Seamer, Maybe
Here’s footage — also, again, to de la Rosa — of what was classified as a two-seamer and certainly which features more arm-side run than Beachy’s fastball, generally:
Action Footage: Beachy’s Fastball, Again
Finally, here’s footage of Beachy conceding a double to Dexter Fowler to begin the game — also on the fastball, but less well located than the two above:
Credit to Brooks Baseball for some of the PITCHf/x data here.
Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
Arizona at Tampa Bay | 19:10 ET
Ian Kennedy (119.0 IP, 116 xFIP-, 0.7 WAR) faces Roberto Hernandez (113.1 IP, 89 xFIP-, 0.4 WAR). As noted yesterday, Tampa Bay has recorded a uncharacteristically high park-adjusted home-run rate for a team whose identity has generally been defined, in recent years, by a combination of plate-discipline (on offense), excellent pitching, and excellent defense.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Tampa Bay Radio.
Today’s Complete Schedule
Here’s the complete schedule for all of today’s games, with our very proprietary watchability (NERD) scores for each one. Pitching probables and game times aggregated from MLB.com and RotoWire. The average NERD Game Score for today is 5.1.
Note: the following table is entirely sortable.
| Away | SP | Tm. | Gm. | Tm. | SP | Home | Time | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yovani Gallardo | MIL | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | CHN | Carlos Villanueva | 14:20 |
| Lance Lynn | STL | 6 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 7 | PIT | A.J. Burnett | 16:05 |
| Tyler Lyons* | STL | 6 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 5 | PIT | Undecided | TBD |
| Jake Peavy | CHA | 7 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 6 | CLE | Scott Kazmir | 19:05 |
| Bud Norris | HOU | 3 | 3 | 3 | 8 | 2 | BAL | Wei-Yin Chen | 19:05 |
| Barry Zito | SF | 1 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 4 | PHI | John Lannan | 19:05 |
| Ste. Strasburg | WAS | 10 | 2 | 9 | 7 | 10 | DET | Anibal Sanchez | 19:08 |
| Ian Kennedy | AZ | 3 | 2 | 5 | 10 | 6 | TB | Rob. Hernandez | 19:10 |
| Juan Nicasio | COL | 4 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 8 | ATL | Alex Wood* | 19:10 |
| Zack Wheeler | NYN | 3 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 6 | MIA | Nathan Eovaldi | 19:10 |
| Joe Saunders | SEA | 3 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 7 | BOS | Bra. Workman* | 19:10 |
| C.J. Wilson | LAA | 4 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 8 | TEX | Derek Holland | 20:05 |
| Tyler Thornburg* | MIL | 6 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 2 | CHN | Jake Arrieta | 20:05 |
| Ervin Santana | KC | 7 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | MIN | Mike Pelfrey | 20:10 |
| Mark Buehrle | TOR | 5 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 | OAK | Dan Straily | 22:05 |
| Mat Latos | CIN | 9 | 3 | 6 | 6 | 3 | SD | Edinson Volquez | 22:10 |
| Andy Pettitte | NYA | 5 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | LAN | Zack Greinke | 22:10 |
To learn how Pitcher and Team NERD Scores are calculated, click here.
To learn how Game NERD Scores are calculated, click here.
* = Fewer than 20 IP, NERD at discretion of very handsome author.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
I watched the game, and Beachy’s main problem was lack of command. His fastball was pretty much the only pitch with which he could hit his spots. On the others, he kept getting the ball up, and the Rockies were feasting on them. One would hope that this is just so-called rust, and that he’ll eventually work things out. The Braves have the luxury of a big lead, so they can send him out there on a regular basis in the hope that he’ll come around.
He was having issues with command during his rehab stint. Seems like rust indeed after reading through these notes, could be a great sleeper next year.
They say command is the last thing to return after an extended layoff like Beachy’s had. I wouldn’t expect him to regain his former level sooner than next season. Fortunately, the Braves do have an acceptable fifth starter coming off the DL sometime in early- to mid-August in the person of Paul Maholm, so they don’t need Beachy to get right in order to maintain a commanding lead in the NL East.
I think the Braves need another starter. Tim Woods does not look like a major leaguer, Beachy looks very rusty and Medlen have not been very good, they need a no 4 and a no 5
Who is Tim Woods